Metro News & Reviews

Construction update: Crenshaw/LAX Line

The Metro Board of Directors in July approved the new names for the Crenshaw/LAX Line during the July monthly board meeting. The official names for the eight stations are Expo/Crenshaw, Martin Luther King Jr., Leimert Park, Hyde Park, Fairview Heights, Downtown Inglewood, Westchester/Veterans and Aviation/Century.

Another station at Aviation and 96th will be built later to serve as a transfer point to the automated people mover to be constructed by LAX. The people mover will run between the airport terminals, the Crenshaw/LAX Line and a consolidated rental car center that is planned.

Below are updates for the Crenshaw/LAX Line. Please bear in mind that construction is a dynamic process and schedules are subject to change.

Underground stations

Walsh/Shea Corridor Constructors (WSCC) — the contractor building the project — is continuing excavation of the Expo/Crenshaw underground station. A depth of about 50 feet has been reached and is expected to reach 56 feet in the next few weeks. At Martin Luther King Jr. Station the constructor has reached a 25-foot depth and at the Leimert Park Station they are working to reach a depth of 20 feet.

Cut and Cover Upcoming Operations

Construction of the entrance and exit for the tracks between Vernon Avenue and 48th Street is expected to begin in mid-October. That will be preceded by activities such as steel pile installation, utility relocation and sidewalk reconstruction.

This work entails:

• Establishing a new construction zone at the center of Crenshaw Boulevard between Vernon Avenue and 48th Street that will be in place for approximately three years.

• There will be new parking restrictions on Crenshaw Boulevard between Vernon Avenue and 48th Street. Metro has opened a temporary parking lot at the northeast corner of Crenshaw Boulevard and 48th Street.

• Detoured pedestrian access at certain locations.

• Temporary elimination of left turns from southbound Crenshaw Boulevard at 48th Street.

• Sidewalk reconstruction on Crenshaw Boulevard from Vernon Avenue to 48th Street. This work is in preparation for the significant full street closures that is anticipate in the near future.

•A 10-day closure of one block on Vernon Avenue, between Leimert Park and Crenshaw Boulevards, for steel pile installation in mid-September. Crenshaw Boulevard will not be affected.

•Crenshaw Boulevard, between 43rd Street/Homeland Drive and 48th Street, will be closed for utility relocation and steel pile installation for four consecutive weekends.

•37-day closure of Crenshaw Boulevard between 43rd Street/Homeland Drive and 48th Street to excavate and deck a portion of the street in mid-October.

Park Mesa Heights

Other construction activities coming soon will include cut-and-cover operations for the underground segment on Crenshaw Boulevard between 59th and 67th streets. A traffic reconfiguration will create a work zone while still allowing two traffic lanes on each direction along Crenshaw Boulevard. The early activities will include saw cutting, staging of construction materials and later steel pile installation.

Left turn restrictions will be implemented for both north- and south-bound traffic on Crenshaw Boulevard at 59th Street, 59th Place, 63rd and 67th streets. Access across 59th Street and 59th Place through Crenshaw Boulevard will be restricted. Left turns onto 60th Street will be maintained for north- and southbound traffic.

Southern sector

Welding of rail tracks is complete at both the Redondo and Arbor Vitae areas construction staging areas. Each welded segment is 1,080 feet long. The welded rail track will be installed later on the project.

The abutments for the La Brea Bridge are 95 percent completed and the falsework (framing) for the superstructure will begin in the next couple of weeks.

The contractor is drilling to install large steel piles on the east side of the I-405 freeway for the La Cienega/405 freeway bridge. The embedded base for the columns will be 135 feet deep.

WSCC will begin next week working on the abutments for the footing of the bridge over Manchester Avenue.

The falsework (framing) is almost complete as are the abutments for the Aviation/Century aerial station. Twelve columns will be on the north side of Century, two more in the Century Boulevard median and two more south of Century Boulevard.

In this area just west of Aviation Boulevard, WSCC continues to install steel piles and lagging for the trenched segment between 104th and 111th – lagging entails insertion of timber planks between each steel pile to create a wall that prevents soil from falling into de construction area.

Abutments 1 and 2 are being built for the bridge that is part of the work south of 111th Street that will connect with the Metro Green Line. Traffic on 111th street is eastbound only until they finish the bridge by the end of 2015 or early 2016.

Construction of the 10 columns needed to support the two connectors to the Green Line is now in progress. The Crenshaw/LAX Line tracks will connect to the Green Line tracks.